Nestorian Synod of Navekat (1180)

The Nestorian Synod of Navekat is an assembly of bishops of the Church of the East that, according to Iradi church tradition, met at Navekat in the Chu valley in 1180 and recognized the Christian clan confederation associated with Janyl. Tradition holds that the Metropolitan of Samarkand presided, that the synod allowed parts of the liturgy to be said in the Turkic vernacular, and that it gave episcopal sanction to chaplains who traveled with the clans' herds.^[1]

No contemporary record of the synod survives, and it is known only from later chronicles of Iyık Janyl. Historians accept that the Church of the East had a metropolitan at Samarkand and flourished in the Chu valley under the Qara Khitai in the 12th century, but treat the synod itself as unverified.^[2] Navekat, whose Sogdian name means "new town", lay near present-day Bishkek, outside modern Irad (see Kand (Linguistic Term)).

References

1. ^ Archbishopric of Iyık Janyl (1998). The Life of Holy Janyl: Synaxarion and Commentary. Cathedral Seminary Press, Iyık Janyl.
2. ^ Baumer, Christoph (2006). The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity. I. B. Tauris, London.